bucks would be rolling in. I didn’t need West West’s money. And-“Great Work” or no, I was as sick of robots as I was of ants. The Veep and the Adze robots were out in the world and doing fine. I’d done enough for the robots.
The summer wore on happily. I kept seeing a lot of Sorrel, Tom, and Ida. They were proud of how much they’d helped me in my battle with the ants.
Gretchen sometimes talked about her and me getting a place together, but I’d grown attached to the freedom and privacy of my rented aerie at Queue’s. Plus, as long as I wasn’t actually living with Gretchen, I could still occasionally date other women, specifically Nga Vo.
Vinh had enjoyed being on the winning end of a trial so much that he’d told his family to let me resume my relationship with Nga. Nga’s parents started letting Nga spend Tuesdays with me-though evening dates were still out of the question. I got the idea of trying to take up surfing, and bought’wet suits and boards for the two of us, along with surfing lessons. Nga bragged that she was the only boat-people surfer in Santa Cruz. She had an eccentric sense of humor, and a weird take on things American. And, of course, kissing her was heaven, though kissing was still as far as it went. I tried bringing Nga back to my room a couple of times, but alert landlady Queue would always notice, and find a way to thwart my evil plans.
In August, Sorrel, Tom, and Ida went backpacking in Yosemite with me, which was wonderful. I had kind of a vision in Yosemite, a moment of enlightenment, just like in the old days. I’d always realized that animals and plants and the web of nature are as alive and cosmically conscious as me. But I’d never before realized that rocks are alive.
The rocks in Yosemite are what’s really unusual about the place-the rocks are plutonic granite, which has square or parallelopiped-shaped chunks of quartz in it. Looking at them in my moment of enlightenment, I could see that, yes, even rocks are alive.
So who needs smart machines?
